Jamaat al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr, speaking at a press conference, said his group had nothing to do with the so-called plot to bomb JFK International Airport in New York. Speaking with the Associated Press, Imam Bakr said he knows nothing about the alleged plot which has lead to the arrest of three Caribbean nationals, two from Guyana and one from Trinidad and Tobago.

It is alleged that the men were seeking support from the Jamaat al-Muslimeen here in Trinidad and Tobago. There are many references to the Jamaat in the complaint which has been issued by the US authorities. But the Imam said he has nothing to do with the matter and he knows not of what is being printed and published.Continue reading ‘Yasin Abu Bakr Denies Link to JFK Terror Plot’

If you’ve watched TV, listened to the radio, read a newspaper or browsed the InterTubes in the past 24-hours, then you’ve surely heard about the “unthinkable” plot to blow up JFK Airport, that was foiled just in the nick of time:

A retired airport cargo worker and a former member of parliament in Guyana were among four men charged with a plot that officials said was intended to cause mass casualties and cripple one of the world’s busiest travel hubs.

Investigators acknowledged, however, that the scheme was so nascent that there was no developed plan for how the plotters would get explosives, let alone gain access to the tanks and pipelines they hoped to target.

As far as world public opinion is concerned, as reflected in the international media, the pronouncements of freedom of expression groups, and of miscellaneous governments, Venezuela has finally taken the ultimate step to prove its opposition right: that Venezuela is heading towards a dictatorship. Judging by these pronouncements, freedom of speech is becoming ever more restricted in Venezuela as a result of the non-renewal of the broadcast license of the oppositional TV network RCTV. With RCTV going off the air at midnight of May 27th, the country’s most powerful opposition voice has supposedly been silenced.Continue reading ‘RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela’

Russell Defreitas, the elderly and hapless patsy ensnared by the FBI for the crime of dreaming up a fantastical plot to blow up Kennedy Airport, “may have been inspired by Osama bin Laden,” however “was not an al-Qaida wannabe, according to authorities. He told an FBI informant that he and other non-Arab Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana wanted to do their part in the global jihad,” Newsday reports. These “other non-Arab Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana” are allegedly members of Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a Muslim group headed up by Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, who led members in an attempted coup d’état against the government of Trinidad and Tobago in July 1990. Bakr is a former policeman who converted to Islam while a student in Canada.Continue reading ‘JFK Four: Connecting Propaganda Dots from Jamaat al-Muslimeen to Hugo Chávez?’

If there is anything shocking about our outrage over the horrendous road accidents we have experienced within recent times, it is our expression of shock. Ruthlessness on the road is symptomatic of the lawlessness that pervades the society. Basic manners and common courtesy have degenerated to the point where they hardly exist even among our elders. Terms like “good day”, “hello”, “please” and “thank you”, to mention a few courtesies that were standard yesterday, are aberrations today. Does the Traffic Chief seriously think the average motorist of today takes him on when he appeals to all to drive carefully? He would be more successful addressing pigs in a pen.Continue reading ‘‘Road hogs’ must be penned permanently’

MINUTES after leaving her south Trinidad home on Thursday to attend classes at a nearby secondary school, a 17-year-old girl was attacked and raped by two men.

A police report stated that the student boarded a black car which she believed was a taxi at about 9 am, to attend to classes. The report stated that the driver, upon reaching the vicinity of the school, he changed directions and instead drove towards a nearby village.Continue reading ‘Schoolgirl abducted, raped’

The National Council for Indian Culture (NCIC) held its Indian Arrival Day Celebrations at the Divali Nagar Site in Chaguanas. Indian Arrival Day celebrates the arrival of Indians to Trinidad from India under the British led Indentureship programme that was initiated to address the labour shortages that arose from Africans leaving the plantation after Emancipation.Continue reading: ‘Indian Arrival Day Celebrations’